Google's New Health Search Results: How Will Your Hospital Be Affected?

Raise your hand if you’ve ever searched for information about a medical
condition online. If your hand is up, you’re not alone! According
to statistics released by Google earlier this year, 1 in every 20 Google
searches is for health-related information. If you are running a hospital,
this means that a good portion of your patients are regularly turning
to the Internet for answers to their medical questions.

In an effort to improve the quality of search results for health information,
Google made some important changes this year — changes that could
change the SEO and SEM playing field for hospitals and healthcare providers.
In February 2015, Google started including health “knowledge graphs”
(or essentially charts with health data) in certain types of health search results.

I’ll explain how this affects hospitals from a healthcare online
marketing perspective, but first let me give you a better idea of what
health knowledge graphs are…

What Data is Google Providing in Its Health Knowledge Graphs?

Google’s new health knowledge graph is basically a table of health
data that shows up on the right-hand side of the search engine results
page (SERP). It only appears when certain health conditions are typed
into the search engine. Google started off with graphs for about 400 of
the most commonly searched medical conditions in February, though it
announced later in September that it would soon have more than 900 conditions represented. These included
conditions and search terms such as the common cold, pinkeye, and arthritis.

Here’s a snapshot of Google search results for “herniated disc.”
See the health knowledge graph on the right side?

Each health knowledge graph includes:

An About section with a medical illustration (condition overview, how common
the condition is, how contagious the condition is, etc.)

A Symptoms section (a description of the most common symptoms and typical
diagnosis requirements)

A Treatments section (common medications and other forms of treatment for
the condition, types of specialists who treat the condition, possible
lifestyle changes, etc.)

According to
Google’s explanation of its new health graphs, the search engine collects this information from a number of reputable
health-focused websites (Mayo Clinic, WebMD, Medscape, etc.), government
agencies (NIH, CDC, FDA, etc.), and partner healthcare organizations.
According to
USA Today, Amit Singhal, Google’s vice president who oversees search, each
fact used in the health knowledge graph has been verified by an average
of 11 doctors.

How Will Hospitals & Healthcare Providers Be Affected?

It’s pretty clear to see how online users can benefit from Google’s
new health knowledge graphs —users can rapidly access the basic
medical information they are looking for without having to do too much
digging. Plus, the information comes from reliable sources and is vetted
by actual doctors!

Now the question is: How do these new graphs affect hospitals and healthcare
providers who are marketing themselves online? Well, one way to look at
it the situation is that the knowledge graphs could create competition
for organic and paid search results. For examples, users may immediately
turn to Google’s compiled data (because let’s face it…
it’s right there), causing them to pay less attention to the links
on the left side of the SERP. That’s the “glass half empty” answer.

Now let’s look at the “glass half full” answer. Let’s
say you use various health conditions as search terms in your hospital’s
search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. Maybe you have pages on your
website that talk about these conditions and their treatments, or you
blog about these topics.

Yes, Google’s health search results may provide a little bit of competition
in the search game. However, you can still maintain a competitive edge
if you use the right content marketing and SEO / SEM strategies. These
would be strategies that actually complement Google’s new knowledge
graphs rather than compete with them.

Honing Your Hospital’s Content & Search Strategy

Think of it this way: Google’s health data will mainly provide the
basics. This information will likely pique online users’ interest
and drive them to do more online research. For example, they may want
more information about a specific type of treatment and where they can
get this treatment. This is where your hospital comes in. By providing
high-quality, in-depth information that answers online visitors’
questions on a deeper level, you can become the next natural step in your
potential patients’ search journey. You can also better position
your website as a reputable source for healthcare information on the web.

The key is knowing which terms your potential patients are searching for,
what information these users are already getting from Google, and what
additional information they’ll need. Once you have the right keywords
and content strategy, you can then apply these tools to your website and
paid search advertisements!

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About the Author

Brian Davis is the Senior Vice President of Healthcare at Scorpion. He leads our vision of bringing a new level of competitive advantage to healthcare providers online. Brian has been a speaker and panelist at various healthcare industry conferences and has been quoted in Becker’s Hospital Review. Most recently, he was a panelist at the Becker’s CIO and Health IT Summit.
Brian is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sloan Business School Entrepreneurial Development Program (EDP) and received his undergraduate degree in Journalism from Louisiana State University. He currently resides in Dallas with his wife, two daughters, and three dogs. In his spare time, he likes to spend time with his family and to take long road trips.